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The Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium is hoping to attract participants from Ruidoso to a pair of events Saturday designed to draw attention to the ongoing health effects of the first atomic explosion more than 70 years ago.

The Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium is hoping to attract participants from Ruidoso to a pair of events Saturday designed to draw attention to the ongoing health effects of the first atomic explosion more than 70 years ago.

Bishop Oscar Cantu of the Diocese of Las Cruces will lead prayers at a candlelight vigil starting at 8 p.m. at the Tularosa Little League field on La Luz Avenue in West Tularosa and deliver a blessing for those who have died or still suffer from cancers believed to have been caused by fallout from the Trinity blast.

"The event is beautiful actually and very touching," said Tina Cordova, co-founder of the Consortium. "It is hard to hear all the names read out loud. We estimate it will be over 600 names this year of those who have passed away."

The Downwinders are also urging Ruidosans who believe they or their family members may have been affected by the detonation to come to the Tularosa Public Safety Building on Saint Francis Drive between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. Saturday to fill out health surveys and share their stories.

The organization has been fighting for more than a decade to bring post-Trinity cancers within the scope of the 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.

That law has paid out billions of dollars to victims of radiation-related illnesses from nuclear tests conducted after World War II in Nevada and Utah.

But proposed amendments that would have extended payments to include exposures suffered by thousands of residents in southern and eastern New Mexico when the first atomic device was tested in July 1945 have repeatedly stalled in Congress.

Cordova said her group is coordinating a “health impact assessment” to help document suffering that she said continues to this day.

“We currently have over 1,000 health surveys and want to get as many people included as possible,” Cordova said.